Several Indonesian folktales and scary stories are told through an anthology format.
The Good Stories: Incarnation of Naya-Heading off into the countryside, a mother and her daughter attempting to reconnect through a special ceremony stop off for a family get-together. When her intentions of seducing her long-lost cousin are inadvertently mixed up with the family's tradition of combating demons, she finds herself torn between the two worlds and must find a way of stopping it from continuing. This was quite an enjoyable and entertaining effort which has a lot going for it. Using the idea of her curiosity against their more traditional views is a solid starting point to use the ghostly haunting she soon undergoes, and once it turns out that she has interrupted the ceremony and forced the spirit world after her this one gets rather chilling. Those setups in the final half where the line between the spirit world and the real world offer some rather fun visuals, and this gives a lot of its positives from this style. There's not much about the purpose of their trip, but otherwise, there's some fun to be had here.
Peeper-Continually spying on women, a peeping tom is coerced into following a dancer at a local stripshow who enjoys being watched. When his instincts get the better of him and he tries to spy on her against her knowledge, he finds himself in the grip of a deadly supernatural force and must find a way to get out. Though incredibly predictable, there's a lot to like with this entry as it's quite erotic and traditional-feeling than in most other stories. The premise of temptation and then having it turned around on them with a darkly comic twist of fate is quite an enjoyable tale which gets quite a lot of effective moments. The central dance for the gathered hordes is insanely erotic and works incredibly well, and although the final reveal is to be expected it's still really chilling. It's about the only thing wrong here.
The List-Awaking after a strange dream, a man finds himself and his girlfriend under attack by a series of strange mystical attacks from an unknown source. When the attacks continue, he finds that they're under attack by a black magic sorcerer's power under the direction of his ex-girlfriend and must find a way of stopping the attacks. This one here was quite the fun and enjoyable offering, as the whole segment is a constant source of fun black magic curses dished out through the helping of a list. With some rather traditional affairs including attack by insects and strange marks on the body, there's plenty of gory work to be done throughout here and some even manage quite a darkly comic bent with his insistent pleading and her appearing on a TV to torment him only to have him turn it off and forcing her to spend money to have the power to go through the turned-off set. The ending twist is a little convoluted and doesn't make much sense, but overall it's quite an enjoyable offering.
The Rescue-Following a deadly viral outbreak, a team of soldiers find themselves tasked with securing a small group of survivors from the ravenous horde of zombies now roaming the city. With their personal ticks making the mission even harder, they try to find a way through the city and away from the hordes alive. This was quite the enjoyable and utterly effective entry as the fact that the focus on the traditional slow-moving zombies targeting the soldiers works incredibly well in context against the other stories. With some frenetic attacks that are chilling and action-packed with the squad forcing the issue with plenty of gunfire, there's a lot of great action here alongside the great zombie make-up and brutal gore. Though it stumbles with a hokey sociopolitical message at the end that feels tacked on due to the storyline, there's quite a lot to really like with this one.
The Bad Story: Show Unit-Following a series of strange break-ins, a man rushing to protect his home accidentally kills the younger sister of his girlfriend. Attempting to hide the incident from her pushes him into far more graphic and gruesome actions in order to keep it hidden, only for much worse situations to come once her body disappears. Frankly, there's very little about this one that reads as horror beyond the actual incident itself which is quite tragic. Tragic doesn't equate to horrific, though, and a great deal of what transpires from his having to kill off others to keep it secret or finding the mail messed with don't register as all that scary. Beyond the brutality of the kills, there's little of this one with any interest.
Dara-Consumed with violent impulses, a chief manages to keep her shockingly dark and disturbing ingredients for her meals a secret from all who attend her restaurant. When one threatens to get away, she resorts to violent and intense action to keep it safely hidden away from others. Although there's a lot to like here, it's also shockingly flawed in that the central activity is kept to a minimum which is what really works here. The scenes of her chasing after the escaped victim or forced to extremely graphic and gruesome dismemberment in order to keep her secret make for quite a fun time here, but very little of elsewhere is enjoyable. With a great deal of time spent on preparations or just dull chatter about what's going on, very little of it is interesting other than the fact of seeing the incredibly gorgeous woman on-screen engaging in these acts. Beyond that, not a lot really happens here.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.
